Untitled, Providence, Rhode Island
- Artist: Francesca Woodman
- Date: 1975–8
- Medium: Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper
- Dimensions: image: 156 x 156 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Untitled, Providence, Rhode Island” by Francesca Woodman. In this tiny 156 mm square black‑and‑white photo, Woodman is back‑facing a peeling wall, bent forward so her head is barely a nose at ground level. She wears a patterned dress or blouse, her bare feet planted on a floor littered with dead leaves, plaster and debris. A diagonal slant of light cuts from her right hand across her knee and calf, ending in a patch of bright floor, while a flimsy, blurred material hangs from her hand, obscured by motion. The image is tilted to the left, adding a subtle sense of instability.
Shot during her time at the Rhode Island School of Design (1975‑78), it shows Woodman as both subject and observer, playing a quiet game of hide‑and‑seek with the abandoned space around her. The small scale and blurred body create a ghostly presence, a theme she repeats in many of her self‑portraits. The work captures the fragile intimacy of her practice and the way she turns ordinary, decaying interiors into a personal, almost theatrical stage.
See it in person
Untitled, Providence, Rhode Island is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
